A Companion to the Gawain-Poet - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0859915298 ISBN 13: 9780859915298

Publisher: BOYE6, 1999

Synopsis

The essays collected here on the Gawain-Poet offer stimulating introductions to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, Cleanness and Patience, providing both information and original analysis. Topics include theories of authorship; the historical and social background to the poems, with individual sections on particularly important features within them; gender roles in the poems; the manuscript itself; the metre, vocabulary and dialect of the poems; and their sources. A section devoted to Sir Gawain investigates the ideas of courtesy and chivalry found within it, and explores some of its later adaptations from the fifteenth to the twentieth centuries. A full bibliography completes the volume. The late DEREK BREWER was Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of Cambridge; JONATHAN GIBSON has worked as a lecturer in the Universities of Exeter and Durham.

Table of Contents

Introduction - Derek S BrewerTheories of Authorship - Malcolm AndrewPoetic Identity - A C Spearing ***Gender and Sexual Transgression - Jane GilbertThe Historical Background - Christianity for Courtly Subjects: Reflections on the Gawain-Poet - David AersThe Materials of Culture: Landscape and Geography - Ralph W V ElliottThe Materials of Culture: Castles - Michael ThompsonThe Materials of Culture: Feasts - Derek S BrewerThe Materials of Culture: Jewels in Pearl - Felicity RiddyThe Materials of Culture: The Hunts in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Anne RooneyThe Materials of Culture: Armour I - Michael LacyThe Materials of Culture: Armour II: The Arming Topos as Literature - Derek S BrewerThe Materials of Culture: The Colour Green - Derek S BrewerThe Materials of Culture: Some Names - Derek S BrewerThe Manuscript: British Library MS Cotton Nero A.x - A S G EdwardsMeter, Stanza, Vocabulary, Dialect - Hoyt N DugganSources I: The Sources of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Elisabeth BrewerSources II: Scriptural and Devotional Sources - Richard G. NewhauserThe Supernatural - Helen CooperThe Gawain-Poet as a Vernacular Theologian - Nicholas WatsonAllegory and Symbolism - Priscilla MartinNarrative Form and Insight - Nick DavisCourtesy and Chivalry in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: The Order of Shame and the Invention of Embarrassment - Derek PearsallSIR GAWAIN: SOME LATER VERSIONS The Grene Knight - Gillian E RogersSIR GAWAIN: SOME LATER VERSIONS Sir Gawain at the fin de siècle: Novel and Opera - Barry A WindeattSIR GAWAIN: SOME LATER VERSIONS Sir Gawain in Films - David J. WilliamsBibliography

About this title

From the Back Cover:

This collection of original essays by an international group of distinguished medievalists provides a comprehensive introduction to the Morte Darthur, the great work of Sir Thomas Malory, which will be indispensable for both students and scholars. As well as essays on the eight tales which make up the Morte Darthur, these are studies of the relationship between the Winchester manuscript and Caxton's and later editions; the political and social context in which Malory wrote; his style and sources; and his treatment of two key concepts in Arthurian literature, chivalry and the representation of women. The volume also includes a brief biography of Malory with a list of the historical records relating to him and his family. It ends with a discussion of the reception of the Morte Darthur from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries, and a select bibliography.

About the Author:

The late DEREK BREWER was Emeritus Professor of English Literature, University of Cambridge; JONATHAN GIBSON has worked as a lecturer in the Universities of Exeter and Durham.

About this edition

• Publisher: BOYE6
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0859915298
• ISBN 13: 9780859915298
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 452
• Editor: Derek Brewer, Jonathan Gibson